News Room: Announcements

Alaska State Museum October 2025 Artifact of the Month is a pocket watch from the SS Princess Sophia

The Alaska State Museum October 2025 Artifact of the Month is a pocket watch from the wreck of the SS Princess Sophia. 

On the evening of October 24, 1918, the SS Princess Sophia, a Canadian Pacific steamer, departed Skagway behind schedule, bound for Vancouver, BC via Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage. The double-hulled steamer, constructed of steel and equipped with a single screw, triple-expansion engine, was built to withstand the treacherous waters of Alaska's Inside Passage. During this trip, she was carrying 268 passengers and 75 crew, most of them soldiers and miners returning south for the winter.

As it sailed, the ship encountered a snowstorm and blinding fog, bringing visibility down to zero. Because they were behind schedule and this was a route the ship and its crew traveled every week, Captain Leonard Locke ordered the ship to travel at full speed (up to 14.5 knots). The crew navigated the waters using dead reckoning, which involved navigating by blowing the ship’s whistle and counting the seconds to an echo to determine where they were in Lynn Canal. 

At 2:00 am on October 25, the Princess Sophia was traveling at full speed roughly 46 miles northwest of Juneau when it crashed into Vanderbilt Reef. The force of the impact wedged the ship up onto the rocks. After wireless operator David Robinson requested assistance, a fleet of rescue craft from Juneau attempted to reach the ship. But rough seas and high winds thwarted their attempts to offload the passengers and crew.

Rescue boats were in danger of wrecking on the reef. As the storm intensified, the fleet took shelter by Sentinel Island. One rescue vessel, the Cedar, got within 400 yards of the Princess Sophia, but its anchor would not hold, and it was forced to retreat as well. 

So far, the Princess Sophia wasn’t taking on water, and Captain Leonard Locke hoped the ship would float at high tide. After roughly 30 hours, at approximately 5:20 pm, the high tide carried the Princess Sophia off the reef. It immediately began taking on water and sinking. David Robinson sent out a desperate final SOS to the rescue vessel Cedar, “Taking water and foundering, for GOD’s sake come and save us!”

The storm would not subside until the morning of October 26. Rescue vessels left the sheltered safety of Sentinel Island to return to Vanderbilt Reef (roughly 4 mi/6.4 km North) around 8:30 am. Upon arrival, the only visible part of the Princess Sophia was the top 40 feet of its foremast (usually no taller than 50 ft/15.2 km on large ships). 

Only one individual initially survived the sinking. Second Officer Frank Grosse was found onshore near a lifeboat but appeared to have sustained a head wound and likely died due to exposure before rescuers found him. Local legend holds that a single English Setter survived, swimming roughly 8 miles to come ashore at Tee Harbor and then traveling 4 miles to Auke Bay where it was found covered in oil. A statue has been erected near Tee Harbor to commemorate the Princess Sophia sinking and its legendary lone survivor. 

Among the objects recovered from the wreck was Carl Knudson’s watch, the October artifact of the month, which had stopped at about 5:33 pm, roughly 13 minutes after the final distress call. The rest of the watches that were found had stopped working by 6:00 pm.  

The Princess Sophia disaster has been called the "Unknown Titanic of the West Coast". It happened close to Armistice Day (Nov. 11, 1918), which ended WWI hostilities, and in the midst of the Great Influenza pandemic (1918-1920). News of a disaster in Alaska was lost in other major world events. October 24 will mark the 107th anniversary of the worst known shipwreck to occur in Alaska. The ship still sits near Vanderbilt Reef, resting on a slope between 80-150 feet.